Thursday, 4 August 2016

Kerala 21: : #11 Ashfaque Majeed

Ashfaque the latest to leave from Mumbai to join IS

After the four youths from Kalyan and Ayaz Sultan from
Malwani, Nagpada resident Ashfaque Majeed is the latest from Mumbai to
leave the country with the intention of joining terrorist outfit Islamic
State, senior police officers told The Hindu on Tuesday.

On
Monday, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch had registered an FIR against
Arshid Qureshi, an employee of the Islamic Research Foundation headed by
the now controversial preacher Zakir Naik, as well as three others,
after Ashfaque’s father approached the police with a complaint against
them. The accused have been booked under the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act and are accused of radicalising Ashfaque and motivating
him to join the IS.

“Ashfaque was in touch with the
youths from Kerala who are also missing and suspected to have joined the
IS. They all hail from the same native place. However, while the other
youths went from Kerala via Sri Lanka, Ashfaque left from Mumbai for
Iran in June this year and is believed to have joined the IS from there.
His radicalisation as well as his departure occurred in Mumbai, and
Qureshi, according to Ashfaque’s father, played a key role, as the two
met frequently, particularly over the last one year, and spent a lot of
time together,” a senior police officer said.

Investigators
said that Ashfaque is a science graduate and had been staying in Mumbai
for the last several years. His father, Abdul Kadir, runs a guest house
in the Nagpada area, which is frequented by visitors from his native
Kerala. Sources said that Ashfaque’s father approached the office of the
Mumbai Police Commissioner last month after learning that Qureshi and
Rizwan Khan, a Kalyan resident, had been arrested by the Kerala police
for alleged radicalisation and forced conversion, as he had frequently
seen his son in Qureshi and Khan’s company for the last two years. The
matter was then handed over to the Crime Branch for investigation.

“Ashfaque’s
father has said in his statement that over the last one year,
Ashfaque’s behaviour changed radically. He became very aggressive and
fundamentalist in his approach, and had numerous fights with his father
on the subject of their religion. There have been several examples in
the last six to eight months where Ashfaque had fights with his father,
telling the latter that his behaviour was not in accordance with the
tenets of Islam,” an officer who is part of the investigation said.

Apart
from Qureshi, the other three accused include Rizwan Khan and two
others, one of whom is a resident of Ashfaque’s native place, while the
other is among the youths missing from Kerala, the police said.

In
June 2014, Kalyan residents Areeb Majeed, Saheem Tanki, Fahad Sheikh
and Aman Tandel went missing and later joined the IS in Syria. Areeb,
after sustaining a bullet injury and becoming ‘disillusioned’, reached
out to Indian authorities and was brought back to India on November 28,
2014, after which he was placed under arrest.

In
October 2015, Ayaz Sultan, a resident of the Malwani area in Malad,
similarly went missing and was later confirmed to have joined the IS
module in Kabul, Afghanistan. Both Areeb and Ayaz have been booked under
the UAPA.

Ashfaque left from Mumbai for Iran in June this year and is believed to have joined the IS

Cops to record statements of friends of Kerala ISIS suspect Ashfaque

The crime branch will record statements of friends of Ashfaque, one
of the 21 youngsters who went missing from Kerala, in Kasaragod district
and Mumbai to find out more about his activities in the past couple of
years, when he is suspected to have been persuaded to join the terror
outfit, Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).

Investigators
said Ashfaque was in touch with Haneef, a maulavi, and Islamic Research
Foundation’s (IRF) Arshi Qureshi for the past two years. Ashfaque’s
father, Abdul Majeed Kadar Khan, 60, the complainant in the case filed
with the Nagpada police, said his son’s behaviour changed and he became
extremely religious two years ago.

“Khan asked his friends to keep
a tab on Ashfaque. He then learnt his son was being radicalised. His
friend, Abdul Rashid Abdulla, too, was radicalised. Abdul and Ashfaque
left to join the ISIS. His friends may know a lot more that could help
the investigation,” said a crime branch officer, on condition of
anonymity. Khan, who runs a lodge in Mumbai, told police Ashfaque
was in Mumbai for three years to complete his bachelors in commerce.
During this time, he met Qureshi and Rizwan Khan.

“We will inquire
with the school staff and students to get more information in
connection with the case,” said a source in the crime branch.While
Navi Mumbai resident Qureshi and Kalyan resident Rizwan Khan are in the
custody of Kerala police, cops are yet to find Haneef and Abdulla, who
were based in Kerala. The city police have contacted their Kerala
counterpart to get information on the duo’s background to build a
stronger case against him.

Their profiles on social networking sites, too, are being scrutinised for clarity and the crime branch is also in touch with informants for leads.

Join me in Islamic State land, runaway urges his family in audio

In the last audio message he sent to his family, alleged Islamic State
recruit Ashfaque Ahmed asked them to leave India, which he called the
Dar al-Kufr (land of the faithless) and join him in Dar al-Islam (land
of Islam) under the Caliphate to fight the “holy war”.
“You must all read the Quran.You must all come here to the Caliphate…
This is Paradise. This is my wish,” Ashfaque is heard pleading between
sobs in a six-minute voice message sent to his brother last month, which
investigators are now studying. “Once you come to land of Hijrah you
must not return to the land you have come from… This is the rule here.”
Ashfaque is one of 21 Kerala youths believed to have left the country
to join the IS. In his message, recorded in Malayalam, Ashfaque is
heard advising his family not to look for him. “I am not planning to
return… I am happy here in the land of Allah under the Caliphate.”
Until this message, the family had thought Ashfaque’s visit abroad
had been to study the Quran. After the revelation, Ashfaque’s shocked
father Abdul Ashfaque Ahmed approached Mumbai police and lodged a case
against four people for radicalising his son.
Based on the complaint, Mumbai police registered a case on August 6
against Arshi Qureshi, a guest relationship manager with controversial
televangelist Dr Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation; Rizwan Khan, a
volunteer with Al-Birr Foundation; Abdullah Rashid, a local imam; and
cleric Muhammad Haneef under sections of the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act (UAPA) and IPC for allegedly radicalising Ashfaque.

Trailing Ashfaque’s travel between February and July, investigators
have found that he left for Sri Lanka on February 23 and stayed in
Jaffna to study the Quran. He returned to India in the first week of
March and stayed mostly in Kerala. On May 24 he visited Mumbai for a
week before leaving for Afghanistan in the first week of June along with
his wife and 18-month-old daughter.

In his statement to the police, Majeed has said that after seeing his
son following Salafi Islam and becoming more religious in his
behaviour, he has asked his elder son and daughter-in-law to keep a
watch on his movements. “When they informed him about his growing
friendship with Haneef, Majeed confronted Ashfaque about it but the
latter rebuked him, called him ‘un-Islamic’ and said he should follow
the real Islam,” a police official said.

5 members of Mumbai family leave home to join ISIS; kin blames 3 people

Son of a Mumbai-based businessman left his
residence along with his wife, daughter and two cousins to apparently
joined the ISIS. The shocked father has registered an FIR against three
people, who he blames for instigating his son.

In his FIR, Abdul Majeed claims his son
Ashfaque Ahmed, left India to join the ISIS after being motivated by
Kerala school teacher and preacher Haneef Abdur Rasheed, Navi Mumbai
resident Arshi Qureshi and Kalyan resident Rizwan Khan. Haneef, Majeed
claims travelled to Syria with Ashfaque. The Mumbai Police, who are
currently investigating the case are determining whether, Haneef
influenced Ashfaque to travel to Syria and join ISIS.

Haneef Mohammed was arrested last week by the Mumbai Crime Branch for
allegedly radicalising nearly 21 youths, which apparently included
Abdul Majeed's son to join the Islamic State (IS), allegedly
indoctrinated youths in a Salafist mosque in Kerala, police sources
said.
After being detained in Peringathur in Kerala, Haneef was brought to
the city on Sunday and produced in a holiday court that remanded him in
police custody till August 20.

He was booked under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act, and the Indian Penal Code by the police along with
Arshid Qureshi alias Arshi, the Islamic Research Foundation’s (IRF)
guest representative officer and Abdul Rashid Abdulla, also linked to
IRF and believed to have escaped the country to join IS.
They are booked on the complaint of city businessman Abdul Majid
Abdul Kader, whose son Ashfaq (25) fled the country with his wife and
18-month-old daughter on June 2 to join IS.

Kerala: Missing youth ask parents to join him in 'sacred land of ISIS'

KOZHIKODE: While the
state police and national intelligence agencies are trying hard to
trace 21 missing persons from Kerala, believed to have reached an
Islamic State (IS) camp somewhere in Afghanistan or Iraq, one of them
has reached out to his sister. Ashfaq Majeed, a native of Padanna in
Kasaragod, contacted his sister on the secure online communication
platform Telegram and invited his mother, father and relatives to join
him in the “sacred land of the IS.”

Cyber experts reportedly tracked the
messages to Tora Bora mountain ranges of Eastern Afghanistan. His
relatives said he began by asking if everybody was doing fine, and when
his sister said he had made their life miserable, he got angry and
started explaining about the “virtues” of the IS. The conversation ended
abruptly.

Her mobile phone is now in the custody
of the police. The account he used for the communication was the same he
had been using earlier, police said. Earlier, another youth Mohammed
Marwan, 23, also had sent a message to his family saying he had joined
the IS and now he “is a terrorist,’ sources said. In a message sent in
the last week of June to his family, Mr Marwan said, “People may call me
a terrorist. If fighting in the path of Allah is terrorism, yes, I am a
terrorist.”

Claimed to be in West Asia, he also
promised to come back once he accomplished his mission. Meanwhile, the
NIA team probing the IS module in Hyderabad started checking whether
they received any help from the state. However, the national
intelligence agencies are yet to make a breakthrough and identify the
exact spot where they are holed up. Details of the missing including
nine men, four of their wives, a child and an infant have already been
passed on to the Iranian intelligence agencies, it is learnt.

Three of the women are pregnant, and all
are in their twenties. The couples include Dr Ijaz Rahman and wife
Resiala, his brother Shiaz Rahman and wife Ajmala and cousin Ashfaq
Majeed and his wife. It was through Mr Rahman, a doctor by profession,
that they befriended Abdullah Rasheed who was working as a purchase
manager at Peace Educational Foundation.

Didn't join ISIS, practicing Salafi Islam: Kerala youth tells mother

Bengaluru, Dec 2: Ashfaque Majeed, one of the 21 youth who went missing from Kerala to allegedly the join Islamic State,
has reportedly called his mother and said that he has not joined
Islamic State and that he is safe in Afghanistan, practicing Salafi
Islam (Salafi is a term often used to describe fundamentalist Islamic
thought).

According to a report in the Indian Express', Ashfaque Majeed had called
his mother, Ayesha and told her that he not joined any terror outfit. I
am following Salafi Islam in Afghanistan, he said during the phone
call. He further told his mother during the 5 minute conversation that
he lived in a village which had bad mobile network. I have travelled to a
town nearby just to call you, he also said.

He also informed his mother that the others had left India were
unable to follow true Islam. I will be starting a medical store along
with Dr Ijaz (cousin), he also said.
Earlier, Ashfaque's youngest
brother had received a voice message on whatsapp which was sent by him
to his family members asking them to leave India and join him in land of
Islam. He also said that not to inform police regarding this.

Ashfaq and some of his associates began meeting Arshi at his office and at his Navi Mumbai house between 2014 and 2015.
Soon
after their interactions, Ashfaq's father began noticing changes in him
-- he became more conservative and started following the Orthodox Islam
way of living. He decided he did not want to work in Mumbai as he could
not practice Islam in its purest form and learn Quran there. THE ACCUSED
According
to NIA, Arshi was using his official position at the IRF to influence
people and convert them to Islam. He used pick a few things from other
religions and compare them to Islam and further tell people it was upon
everyone to eradicate no believers by either killing or converting them
NIA
investigation shows Arshi Qureshi was involved in unlawful activities
and in spreading hatred against India. He is also accused of furthering
ISIS activities.

Indian deaths in Afghan 'fake news,' says Islamic State recruit from Kerala...

Indian deaths in Afghan 'fake news,' says Islamic State recruit from Kerala

Kasaragod: A missing Keralite with alleged ISIS links denied reports
of Indians being killed in the recent US airstrike on Achin,
Afghanistan.
The relatives of Ashfaq Majeed, the missing Keralite believed to have
joined ISIS, had received a message from him on social media claiming
that Indians were not killed in the airstrike.
'Fake news,' Ashfaq's message read in his reply to a local activist in Trikaripur.

Ashfaq Majeed, a Kasaragod native, was part of a 21-member group
believed to have reached an Islamic State (IS) camp somewhere in
Afghanistan or Iraq. Ashfaq Majeed had earlier contacted his sister on
the secure online communication platform Telegram. He had urged his
mother, father and relatives to join him in the 'sacred land of the IS.'

Cyber experts said the message emanated from the Tora Bora mountain ranges of Eastern Afghanistan.

Another ISIS terrorist from India killed, this time in Afghanistan

A 30 year old man from Kerala who was believed to have joined ISIS was reportedly
killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan. The man named Bexin Vincent
was a convert from Christianity and had married a girl called Nimisha.
They both had slipped out of India when she was pregnant.
This piece of information was reportedly conveyed to his family which
lives in Kasargod, North Kerala via the messaging app named Telegram on
Saturday. The sender of the message is believed to be a youth named
Ashfaq Majeed, who along with at least 19 others, had reportedly joined the Islamic State last year.

‘I hope US bombs kill them’: A Kerala father disowns two sons who have joined ISIS in Afghanistan

Waiting for the worst

In
fact, some of them want the nightmare to end soon, even if it means
losing their children. “I hope the American bombs kill my sons soon,”
said Abdul Rahman Hamza, whose sons Ijas Rahman, 34, and Shihas Rahman,
28, and nephew Ashfaq Majeed, 26, are among those who have allegedly to
join the Islamic State’s ranks.
“Their misdeeds have put many people in trouble,” the 66-year-old told Scroll.in
outside the Salafi mosque in Padanna, where he had come to offer
afternoon namaaz, on Tuesday. “It should not happen anymore. That is my
prayer to Allah these days.”
He lamented that after all his struggles to give his sons a good education, this was “what I got in return”.
Ijas
Rahman was a doctor and Shihas Rahman a management graduate. Ashfaq
Majeed graduated in commerce. Like them, the other eight missing youth
from the village were engineers, accountants and management
professionals. Padanna itself is a wealthy village, having made its fortune
with enterprising traders setting up profitable businesses across India
as well as in South East Asia and the Gulf region. Hamza has been
running a business in Mumbai since 1976.
Hamza said he did not
want to see his sons and nephew any more, though his voice wavered. “It
is not possible for them to come back to Padanna,” he pointed out. “They
went to Afghanistan to kill themselves. I don’t want to see them
again.”
The constant worry has taken a toll on his health. He
suffers from high blood sugar and is insulin-dependent, and also takes
medication to keep his blood pressure and cholesterol under control.
“These
youngsters are not pursuing real Islam,” he said. “They are treading
the wrong path, and they don’t know a thing about Islam.”
A devout Muslim, Hamza makes it a point to visit the Salafi mosque to offer prayers whenever possible.

Ashfaq Majeed has been sending messages to an acquaintance, BC Abdul
Rahman, in Padanna at regular intervals. “I had met Majeed a couple of
times at the mosque in Padanna,” said Rahman. “After I downloaded the
Telegram app, I pinged Majeed once. Since then, I have been receiving
his messages.”
Rahman was the first person in Padanna to know of
the deaths of Hafizuddin, Muhammed Murshid and Yahya. “I get messages
immediately after any major happening and I pass them on to the
relatives,” he said. He also receives updates about child births and
attacks on members of the group.